Over 200 social media accounts eulogising gangsters blocked: Punjab Police’s AGTF

The Anti-Gangster Task Force of Punjab Police has taken action to get 203 social media accounts blocked after it found them glorifying gangsters and promoting violence, a senior police official said on Tuesday.

Of them, 132 accounts were on Facebook and 71 on Instagram, said the official.

The social media analysis unit of AGTF identified a number of social media accounts, using names of notorious gangsters and uploading objectionable content such as eulogising gangsters, claiming responsibility and flaunting killings of rival gang members, said the AGTF official.

They were promoting guns and violence, targeting vulnerable sections of society for extortion and threatening police officers, the official.

A total of 203 social media accounts have been blocked, he said while sharing information about the crackdown on social media accounts of criminals.

The officer said since the formation of the AGTF in April 2022, it spearheaded operations against gangsters and criminals.

The AGTF was formed by the AAP government to stamp out gangsters from the state.

The official said the force has so far “arrested 1,408 gangsters and criminals and neutralised 12 criminals, while 505 gangster modules have been busted”.

The official said the AGTF in coordination with central agencies and police of different states successfully conducted inter-state operations to nab gangsters from states of Bihar, Delhi, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

So far, 37 criminals have been arrested in inter-state operations, said the official.